Brian Jaikens – What has been and what will be

Is Windows 10 ready?

Leave a Comment / Project Spartan, Windows 10 / Brian

Windows 10 is different. While Microsoft aggressively tracked down leaked builds of Windows Vista and Windows 7, the software giant has opened its doors to let anyone test Windows 10 through a process that’s not normally public. It’s a change that has allowed everyone to judge and critique Windows 10 before it’s even ready. We’ve seen the good and the bad, and now we’re about to witness the final result on July 29th. With Microsoft now committing to a Windows 10 release in less than two months, is it really ready?

Windows 10 has progressed well over its relatively short development period. If you compare preview builds from two months ago to today, there are many changes and improvements, but still a lot of bugs. While it’s two months until release date, Microsoft will still complete a process known as release to manufacturing (RTM) later this month. Windows might be switching to a servicing model with regular updates, but there’s still a final point needed for PC makers to start loading their own images to ship devices in time for the back to school period and the holidays. That RTM phase means Microsoft only has a few weeks to get Windows 10 ready before it has to rely on patches and hotfixes that can be distributed automatically to machines once they’re upgraded.

A few weeks doesn’t seem like enough time right now, especially given the current state of Windows 10. The latest build (10130) looks almost finished and polished, but then there are continued issues with the Start Menu not opening or crashing and driver problems that are slightly alarming at this stage of development. Perhaps the biggest issue I have encountered is the upgrade process between builds. Microsoft has been testing this vigorously, as it’s a key part of getting Windows 7 and Windows 8 users to Windows 10 for free. If an upgrade fails then it’s one less machine running the latest operating system. I’ve had a variety of upgrade failures, even with the recent builds that Microsoft has distributed. Please note this is the author’s experience. I haven’t had a problem with any update upto and including 10130. (BJ)

These could all be fairly minor bugs, but they’ve been consistent and present throughout the Windows 10 development period, which suggests there have been some issues that have prevented Microsoft addressing them fully. Fortunately, Microsoft is now in a period of code completion. Additions to the core of Windows 10 will be locked soon, and Microsoft is now focused on improving the built-in apps and crushing bugs. Like any version of Windows, Microsoft has a number of tests and processes to check off before it declares Windows 10 is ready. The overall bug count will have to drop, and the company will decide which bugs can wait for launch day patches and prioritize accordingly.

Windows 10 will of course be ready for July 29th, but how complete and stable it will be could vary depending on your hardware and usage. I have some machines that work well, and others that are crashing or the display drivers and audio drivers don’t work correctly. At this stage I would like to be using a release candidate on my machines that feels like the final version of Windows 10, but we’re not quite there yet. Microsoft will start pre-loading the final bits on PCs that have opted in for the Windows 10 upgrade, with patches and updates to follow once it launches on July 29th.

WINDOWS 10 IS GOING TO HAVE A BUNCH OF UPDATES ON DAY ONE

Windows 8 launched with a number of day one patches, and I expect Windows 10 will have plenty. Microsoft has been regularly patching Windows 10 preview builds to address bigger problems, and receive additional feedback to help shape changes. The dedicated feedback app will ship with the final version of Windows 10 so that Microsoft can continue to receive input from users. It’s really Microsoft’s method of using the general public for its own testing. With recent headcount reductions on the testing teams for Windows, public feedback and beta testing has helped Microsoft change the way it’s building Windows.

Microsoft is very close to getting Windows 10 ready, but the Windows team has a lot of sleepless nights ahead throughout June and July to ensure the quality is high across the vast amount of PCs out there. Microsoft can’t afford to make any bad impressions with Windows 10 after the mixed reception to both Vista and Windows 8. Providing the driver issues are cleared up, the company can easily avoid the problems associated with the early days of Windows Vista. Windows 10 is really shaping up to be the next great successor to Windows 7 and Windows XP, and Microsoft wants to ensure everyone upgrades. Windows 10 will never really be ready thanks to continuous new features and updates coming for the rest of the year and beyond. The road could be a little bumpy to start, but it’ll only get smoother and smoother over time.

Source: Is Windows 10 ready? | The Verge

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Dutch solar road makes enough energy to power household

Leave a Comment / General, Technology / Brian

You may remember a previous article on my web site about solar road energy. Well looks like somebody has succeeded.

Engineers in the Netherlands say a novel solar road surface that generates electricity and can be driven over has proved more successful than expected.

Last year they built a 70-metre test track along a bike path near the Dutch town of Krommenie on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

In the first six months since it was installed, the panels beneath the road have generated over 3,000kwh. This is enough to provide a single-person household with electricity for a year.

“If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kWh per square metre per year,” says Sten de Wit, spokesman for SolaRoad, which has been developed by a public-private partnership.

“We predicted [this] as an upper limit in the laboratory stage. We can therefore conclude that it was a successful first half-year.”

The project took cheap mass-produced solar panels and sandwiched them between layers of glass, silicon rubber and concrete.

“This version can have a fire brigade truck of 12 tonnes without any damage,” said Arian de Bondt, a director at Ooms Civiel, one of consortium of companies working together on the pilot project.

“We were working on panels for big buses and large vehicles in the long run.”

The solar panels are connected to smart meters, which optimise their output and feed the electricity to street lighting or into the grid.

“If one panel is broken or in shadow or dirt, it will only switch off that PV panel,” said Jan-Hendrik Kremer, Renewable Energy Systems consultant at technology company Imtech.

Five years of research

The research group spent the last five years developing the technology but during the first six months of the trial a small section of a coating, designed to give grip to the smooth glass surface without blocking the sun, delaminated.

This was due to temperature fluctuations causing the coating to shrink. The team is now working on an improved version of the coating. More than 150,000 cyclists have ridden over the panels so far.

“We made a set of coatings, which are robust enough to deal with the traffic loads but also give traction to the vehicles passing by,” said Stan Klerks, a scientist at Dutch research group TNO.

He said the slabs also had to “transfer as much light as possible on to the solar cells so the solar cells can do their work”.

The group behind the project is now in talks with local councils in the Netherlands to see if the technology can be rolled out in other provinces. A cooperation agreement has also been signed with the US State of California.

“Solar panels on roofs are designed to have a lifetime, which is typically 20/25 years,” said de Wit.

“This is the type of lifetime that we also want for these types of slabs. If you have a payback time of 15 years then afterwards you also have some payback of the road itself so that makes the road cheaper in the end.”

Source: Dutch solar road makes enough energy to power household – Al Jazeera English

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Why Microsoft is calling Windows 10 ‘the last version of Windows’

IT’S ALL ABOUT WINDOWS AS A SERVICE

Microsoft has been discussing the idea of Windows as a service, but the company hasn’t really explained exactly how that will play out with future versions of Windows. That might be because there won’t really be any future major versions of Windows in the foreseeable future. Microsoft has altered the way it engineers and delivers Windows, and the initial result is Windows 10. Instead of big releases, there will be regular improvements and updates. Part of this is achieved by splitting up operating system components like the Start Menu and built-in apps to be separate parts that can be updated independently to the entire Windows core operating system. It’s a big undertaking, but it’s something Microsoft has been actively working on for Windows 10 to ensure it spans across multiple device types.

While we’ll witness the results in the coming months, Microsoft is already in launch mode for a number of its apps and services that power Windows 10. The software company is testing preview builds of Window 10 with willing participants, and apps like Xbox and Mail have been engineered for regularly monthly updates. Even Office for Windows 10 will also get regular updates, much like a mobile version, instead of the big bang release every few years.

WINDOWS ISN’T DEAD, BUT THE IDEA OF VERSION NUMBERS COULD BE

When I reached out to Microsoft about Nixon’s comments, the company didn’t dismiss them at all. “Recent comments at Ignite about Windows 10 are reflective of the way Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner, with continuous value for our consumer and business customers,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “We aren’t speaking to future branding at this time, but customers can be confident Windows 10 will remain up-to-date and power a variety of devices from PCs to phones to Surface Hub to HoloLens and Xbox. We look forward to a long future of Windows innovations.”

With Windows 10, it’s time to start thinking of Windows as something that won’t see a big launch or major upgrade every few years anymore. Much like how Google’s Chrome browser gets updated regularly with version numbers nobody really pays attention to, Microsoft’s approach will likely result in a similar outcome. This is really the idea of Windows as a service, and the notion that Windows 10 could be the last major version of Windows. Microsoft could opt for Windows 11 or Windows 12 in future, but if people upgrade to Windows 10 and the regular updates do the trick then everyone will just settle for just “Windows” without even worrying about the version number.

Source: Why Microsoft is calling Windows 10 ‘the last version of Windows’ | The Verge

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Microsoft answers the question, ‘Why Windows Phone?’

Leave a Comment / Windows 10, Windows Phone / Brian

Why Windows Phone?
With no flagships announced, software that is on other platforms and a weak app store for the better part of a year, many consumers have asked what is the value proposition of Windows Phone. Up until last week, Microsoft did not have an answer that they were publicly willing to share but now we know how the company will respond to this question going forward.

Continuum for phones, that is coming with Windows 10, is Microsoft’s ace up the sleeve. The feature, which requires new hardware and will be arriving in new devices this summer, is the ‘killer’ feature that you can only get on Windows 10 for phones and it will not be easily replicated by any other player in the market.

What this feature allows you to do is take your phone, connect it to a keyboard, mouse and monitor and use the device like a desktop PC. This isn’t a watered down experience either, because of how Universal apps are designed, you can run all the Office apps just like you would on the desktop with most of the features being present as well. While we know this may not be a feature everyone will use on day one, it’s easy to see how this functionality will one day replace your laptop.

Looking at how quickly smartphones have progressed over the past 10 years, it’s fair to say that the devices of today are at least as powerful, if not more so, than the laptops of ten, maybe even five years ago. If you think about where the smart phone is headed in the next five years or so, you can only imagine how much horsepower will be under the glass in future devices.

Phone Continuum will likely never replace developer machines or those used for video/photo editing but for some users who only need email, chat and web browsing, this scenario is a very real solution to consolidating their technology.

There are other reasons to choose Microsoft’s mobile platform like Cortana and the many new security features that offer a better ecosystem when you are already using a Windows PC. But for a quick, one sentence answer that is easily directed at consumers, Continuum is the marketing word of choice as it is not only new but forward-looking as well.

When it comes to ‘killer’ features, Cortana, while better than Siri and on equal footing to Google Now, has competitors that now exists but Continuum is unmatched. Yes, there were earlier devices that tried to replicate this experience but they were limited to a few handsets and the apps were simply phone apps on a larger screen; they never gained much attention.

While Microsoft hopes that its new iOS/Android app porting strategy will fill out its store and they will consistently update Cortana, Continuum is the new show pony for the platform.

Source: Microsoft answers the question, ‘Why Windows Phone?’

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Court says Skype’s name is too similar to Sky’s

Smartpen battle

In theory, Sky could now try to pursue Microsoft for a licensing fee even if it did not want to block the use of Skype’s name outright.

However, the firm did not directly address this point in a statement released following the ruling.

“Sky notes today’s decision from the General Court of the European Union,” it said.

“This relates to a long-running dispute with Skype over the extension of its trademark applications to cover a broad range of goods and services that overlap with Sky’s own trademark registrations – including, but not limited to, TV related products and services.

“Our intention has been to protect the Sky brand with our research showing that similarities in name and logo have the potential to confuse customers.”

Sky has acted in the past against another US company to protect its identity.

In 2012 it threatened to sue the smartpen-maker Livescribe for trademark infringement.

The American company opted not to fight the case and instead changed the name of the product in question from the Sky Wifi to the Livescribe Wifi pen in the UK, while retaining the original name elsewhere.

Source – Court Says Skypes Name is too Close to Skys – BBC News

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